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Snooker star Shaun Murphy is set to tie the knot for the third time after popping the question to his musician girlfriend, Jo Rochell. The 43-year-old recently proposed to the internationally acclaimed piano player and vocalist, who shared the happy news on Instagram. Alongside a photo of the couple and her new ring, she wrote: "Four years ago, he booked me for a gig... after many MANY ups and downs, I said 'Yes' to a lifetime of more." Murphy, who famously clinched the World Snooker Championship as a qualifier in 2005 and now boasts an estimated net worth of around £5million, confessed that the proposal came later than he anticipated. His recent triumph at the British Open and run to the final at the Xi'an Grand Prix led him to alter his plans, but he described it as a "very special moment". "We went out for dinner and I had the ring in my pocket and it was all very low key," he revealed. "In the end, it didn't feel right to do it in the restaurant in front of a load of strangers, so we went home and had a drink and just did it in the privacy of our own home. "It was a nice personal moment, and as I say, it was very special, it's been a long time coming. We're both really delighted, excited." In August, Rochell paid tribute to Murphy on his birthday, penning: "Happy Birthday @shaunmurphy147. This past year hasn't been easy, you've faced so many personal challenges, most of which people will never see. "You've faced things head on with courage, vulnerability and humour. You make me laugh every single day - I can't wait for the next 365 days of belly laughs." This marks the third engagement for 'The Magician', who split from his second wife, Elaine, in May 2023. The couple, who share two children together, Harry and Molly, wed in 2016 and relocated to Dublin, but ultimately went their separate ways. "We tried to reconcile and it will be nice to look back in years to come and know we tried absolutely everything to make our marriage work," Murphy said of the split. "It's amicable. We move on as friends and our whole lives now become about raising our children and protecting them from everything that people go through in life, because life's not easy." He had previously experienced the breakdown of a marriage, having officially parted ways from his first wife, Clare, in 2009. Originally from Essex, Murphy relocated to Rotherham in 2004 to be with her, and they married the following year. However, their relationship began to fracture three years later following a tabloid expose. Admitting he was "completely unprepared" for the media attention following his World Championship triumph, Murphy later told the Guardian: "[The press] found out that, at the time, I was heavily religious. "I'm an atheist now but back then I was deep down the rabbit hole of being a born-again Christian. Some unsavoury things were written about me, which I didn't know how to handle." On the eve of his second World Championship final against John Higgins, Murphy found himself in hot water amid reports he had spent the night with an escort. His then-manager, Brandon Parker, issued a statement admitting that the snooker player had spent time with the woman but denied allegations of infidelity, asserting that he did not have sex with her. The story also suggested they had met through a religious youth group a decade earlier, but Murphy addressed the controversy and set the record straight. "That's not quite accurate," he later clarified. "This girl and I had dated in our teenage years, and following the break-up from my wife at the time in 2008, she reconnected with me through Facebook. "She led me down the garden path a little and made up stories of what she did for a job. It turned out she was an escort. Nobody was more surprised than me, and it was very unnerving to see these things written about you." Despite facing challenges in his personal life, recent years have seen Murphy experience significant improvements in his mental and physical well-being, following a gastric sleeve procedure in 2022. The snooker ace, who once tipped the scales at a hefty 20 stone, has opened up about his mental health struggles and how a life-changing operation saved him. "The surgery that I had has changed my life from top to bottom," Murphy confessed to Eurosport. "I think whilst I did not go to see a doctor, had I have done I think someone would have signed me off with complete full depression. I was in a very, very bad state mentally. "My self-esteem was through the floor and I did not want to go out and play. I did not want to leave the house and that spiralled into feeling miserable and eating more. I don't think it is too extreme to say it was life-saving for me."
